She wakes, alone
by Kayi Rowling
Summary: [Request and Receive Saga] Sequel to "She waited, asleep": The seal cast upon her will only break if he dies...


**Notes:** Heeellooo :'3

 **Stats:** 2000 words for the sequel to  She waited, asleep, which was written for TikiRobin.

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' _Robin..._ '

He opened his eye, realizing he had fallen asleep reading under a tree. The weather was so nice, an unusual thing, and he hadn't been able to resist its lull and the calm surrounding him. Peace was truly a blessing; he could leave the village without worries, and set down to rest in the shade with no one bothering him. Everything was...

' _Robin..._ '

His name reached his ears again, somehow quieter than the sound of the breeze rustling the leaves, yet echoing loudly within his head. He winced and doubled over in pain, trying to figure out who was calling and _how._ There was no one nearby... _and_ there was someone with him, he couldn't understand it.

He felt so sad, not knowing, and so _dumb,_ because he _should_ know. It was something important he had forgotten, that had gone missing from his life, though it was complete already. And that was all he could tell, no matter how hard he tried to remember.

Blood dripped from his empty eye socket, staining the open book on his lap. "Damn! Why does this keep happening?" he hissed, accidentally smearing it all over the pages as he scrambled to get up.

Robin walked fast back to the village, one hand covering his missing eye, the other slipping the book into one of his hidden pockets. The villagers nodded at him in acknowledgment as he passed them, heading to the inn, but he didn't return the gesture. He didn't trust them to know of his issue...

Entering the building and sneaking upstairs, he found Aversa browsing through his notes in their shared room. "I was wondering where you had... Robin? Is it the bleeding again?"

And he slowly lowered his hand, his palm clean. "Yes, it seems so," he muttered. "It's always so real... I feel it flow... and so warm..."

"But it never is," she pointed out, smiling sympathetically. "You don't remember how you lost your eye. However, I'm starting to think your hallucinations are based on those memories you blocked. Maybe they were too gruesome for your mind to handle... It should be harmless, Robin, and you need to remain calm when it happens. You're safe and sound now."

He sighed, approaching her for a hug, which she avoided standing up from her seat. She looked as panicked as she usually did. "And you scold me for reacting to my eye socket bleeding out?" he asked her, feeling his face turn into a deep frown.

"It still feels wrong, like you don't belong with me." She always said that.

' _Come to me..._ '

Robin didn't want to admit it, but he felt the same. He had been convinced she was the person he had been closest to, when he had returned from... someplace he didn't remember anymore. It had become obvious with time that it wasn't the case, yet he still hadn't given up. He probably should.

No use worrying about it for long, though. He would think it over once they were back at Ylisstol, when he went in to report to Chrom about Plegia's situation in more depth.

' _I miss you..._ '

He did as well, that voice he didn't recognize stirring something deep within his heart, and he wanted to scream in frustration because it made no sense. Instead, as his companion slept, he cried that night by the candlelight, droplets of blood ruining his notes, which would be fine in the morning...

The trip back to Ylisse's castle was long and lonely. Aversa had seen him to the carriage, and refused to follow; she just made sure everything was in order, that he wasn't forgetting anything, and said goodbye while calling him brother again. That was the end of their attempt at a relationship, and he was confused but glad for it. He didn't know why, but it was the right thing.

"Robin! You look awful," Chrom said first thing, horrified and hurrying to his best friend's side as he entered the study escorted by Frederick and Lissa, who also looked worried. "I shouldn't have let you travel in your condition."

"I don't have a _condition,_ " the tactician replied, "I'm only... disoriented lately." He wondered if it was normal after having slain Grima. Perhaps it was a side effect of freeing his soul. He hoped he'd get better with time.

"You lost your _eye_ because of it." Robin felt it bleeding again, yet Chrom didn't react. Everything must be fine...

"I'll find it someday," he joked. It wasn't funny to anyone in the room. He regretted having voiced it. "But alright, I'll take it easy with the work from now on, I promise."

Chrom sighed. "Yes, starting _right now;_ we can talk about what you found when you have rested." He signaled for Frederick to guide him to a guest room, and the knight opened the door...

" _Father!_ " A young woman with green hair snuck inside, and threw herself at Robin, sobbing hysterically. No one else noticed but him. " _Father! Oh, father! I wanted to see you... Please, father! Can you see me? Can you hear me?_ "

The other three paled as he stumbled backwards, and started talking to the air: "Yes, I see you, and I hear you just fine... But who are you?"

" _I'm your little girl, your daughter! Don't you remember me, father?_ "

"Should I call Libra for this? Or Henry?" he heard Lissa whisper to her brother, looking terrified.

"I don't have any children," he told the invisible girl.

She screamed, falling to her knees while tugging at his coat. " _What did I do to deserve...? Father, please! Remember me!_ "

Seeing the fabric moving on its own made Chrom push his sister out, ordering her to bring _anyone_ over; this was a serious haunting, whether a demon or a curse or something worse, he didn't know...

"I really don't..."

' _You know her._ '

"...Morgan!"

And the spell around his daughter broke, the other two men in the room nearly jumping out of their skins as a young manakete materialized before their eyes, clinging to the tactician. Their memories flooded back into their minds as well, fright replaced by relief at seeing the family reunited.

Robin knelt and hugged her tightly, and Morgan cried harder. "Oh, father! Nobody could see me. Nobody could hear me. I couldn't touch things, only raw food and water... I don't know... I wandered for so long!"

"Shhh, it's alright, everything will be fine now." He had forgotten his own daughter.

Again.

Naga's words returned to him. She had claimed Morgan had left willingly. The girl certainly didn't look anything like that; she was drowning in despair.

"I'm so happy I could get to your side, father," she whispered against his chest, calming down until she was just sniffling. "I want to see mother soon too."

Tiki was most surely still sealed away, waiting for them in her deep sleep. And her name alone felt like he was finally back to the land of the living, all this time without it being a lie and a nightmare. Robin had been dead and lost without her in his heart.

"We had thought you had gone mad, since your return," Chrom said as he approached them, regret in his eyes. "But I remember now. The others might remember too. We'll help you find her." None had been there for him the first time around, and he felt relief wash through him; with their help, he could make it. "What is that...?"

"Father!"

' _Robin!_ '

He blacked out, real blood running down his face from his empty eye socket.

Naga met him in a strange dreamland, a mysterious smile on her face. "Morgan did well."

"No offense, but I don't want to see or hear you."

There was a eerie light dancing in her eyes. "You mean the offense."

"Of course I _do!_ "

"I'm not offended. And I come with more aid for your cause."

Was she going to strangle his soul until it dissipated? Would she use her immense power to control him again, make him claw out his other eye once he was back in his body?

"My daughter rests in the place you would least expect to find her at, Fellblood. She will not wake, however, unless you are willing to die for her. That cannot be changed."

Robin came to his senses suddenly, the dream clinging to his mind. Morgan was curled up beside him, and both were resting on a soft bed in a guest room. He felt bandages tightly wrapped around his head, put in place to press against his empty eye socket. He had the feeling he wouldn't bleed anymore from it, for some reason, in either way it had before.

Slowly, he got off the bed, trying not to disturb his daughter's sleep, as she looked extremely peaceful. He also didn't want her to follow him to see him give up his life to free his wife. She had already suffered enough, and she didn't need to be witness to a second sacrifice of his...

Under the cover of the night, he snuck out into the gardens, holding on tight to his sheathed sword. Naga had hid Tiki somewhere he wouldn't easily guess, and the world was _huge._ He wouldn't make it to her if he had to check every single place. He was only mortal, after all.

This would need an unconventional approach, he thought as he hid behind a tree. The blade reflected the moonlight as he looked at it; it had been easy to stab Grima's body, identical to his own, but his hands trembled now.

' _Robin! No!_ '

"You talk in your sleep, my love."

' _Stop! Don't do it!_ '

"I wonder why I can hear you, and feel you beside me."

' _You can still find me..._ '

"I have, what? Fifty years left, more or less?"

' _Don't say that..._ '

"I would have been so happy to find you."

' _Please...!_ '

"Tell Morgan I'm sorry she won't be born in this timeline."

' _No, don't..._ '

"I love you, Tiki. Please don't cry."

' _I love..._ '

She cried out as he turned his sword on himself and buried it deep into his body, waking in the darkness of the underground beneath the castle at Ylisstol. When she recognized where she was, her heart skipped for a moment. Her tears wouldn't stop falling, as she knew she hadn't dreamt what she had just seen.

Somehow, her pain gave her strength to get up and run outside, to the gardens. She passed plenty of people, who had been startled out of their sleep by her inhuman scream earlier, but she didn't see or hear any of them. She found her husband collapsed against the tree, hidden from sight unless they looked for him, like she had been.

"Tiki...?"

Her voice failed her, hearing his, and she could only stare in silence at Robin as he died. She had lost so many... She had saved none...

"Over here!" Morgan called out, and Tiki realized her daughter was standing right beside her. "We need a help! Get us a healer! Hurry!"

In a blink, staves were working their magic, the bloodied blade thrown away and hidden by the shadows. Tiki sighed against her daughter's neck, feeling relief. She could hear Robin's groans as his wound healed, heard him hiss as they moved him... He would live.

' _He was willing to sacrifice himself for you,_ ' her mother whispered to her soul. ' _He surpassed expectations, though. I did not see that one coming._ '

' _Your mothering has always left_ too _much to be desired._ '

' _Speaking of mothering... I have spoken to Morgan in her dreams tonight. She will be my new Voice. She also went beyond in her own test, though she also suffered._ '

' _And what of me?_ '

' _You are free to stay with your husband. He's only mortal, after all. Make every second with him count, so you part later without regrets._ '

Tiki tried not to cry, and vowed to herself she would do just that.


End file.
